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Back to the stage, where I love the new addition to the bathroom graffiti: "Ifyou're not part of the solution, you're part of production." Much waiting and waiting. What's going on? Don't know. More waiting.Finally, it feels like it's starting to get close for us to shoot somethingand I wonder which scene is up. "What are we doing?" I ask Bethan. "Waitingfor Christmas," she replies. More time. A set-up, yes? No. A.D. Clintcalls us to set, but Mark wants all these people gone, he's trying to do aprivate rehearsal with the actors. Wait, wait, wait. Dana is makingpeople's astrological charts.
Next is the first part of the scene where Jonas is showing Melody his LouiseBrooks book, pointing to different pictures of her and telling Melody howbeautiful Louise is, getting ready to [CENSORED.] Wil runs through thefirst rehearsal straight, then starts joking with Melanie about the picturesin the book, pointing to different pages and saying in a Beavis and Buttheadvoice, "She's really old..." Page turn and point. "She uses Depends..." Melanie is giggling. The crew is laughing. Wil, sensing his reputation withthe director may be in peril, holds up the book and says in defense, "I'm justturning to whatever pages to point to and say how beautiful she is, and she'sjust not that beautiful in some of these - I mean, she's dressed like a man orshe's old - and it's funny!" Lunch. We notice there are no pies set out for dessert. Just fortunecookies. A little bit of a disappointment. Although an amusingdisappointment. Bethan encourages us all to read aloud our fortunes. Minesays I will be visited by friends long absent. That's nice. Dana reads hers,something else nice. Bill reads his, something about his investment being afinancial success. Bethan breaks open her cookie and reads, with disgust, arepeat of mine. Then during the meal, we hear the opening words of HappyBirthday, and it's Wil's birthday. So we sing to him and all get ice creamcake. Patrick asks me what my fortune was. "Will you be visited by friendslong absent?" he asks. "Everybody got that one." I mention to Julia that I'd like a picture of her and the guys together, andshe agrees, but takes it to the crew picture level, announcing for everyoneget together for a group picture. So we're instructed to stand outside aroundthe prop truck (brilliant! Some stand in the back, some on the half-raisedplatform, some on the ground), and a bunch of us lay our cameras in a pile atthe feet of the still photographer. When I get mine back, I see that thereare no shots left! Oh, no! Did I miscalculate? Was he able to take a shot?I ask him, and he happily tells me, oh, he had THREE on that camera! Great.Don't need my camera for the rest of the day. Back inside, a few of us are hanging with Wil. He takes a piece of foamrubber packing and holds it against his chest like a shield. Someone asks himif he's going to Nerf war. He tells us about the time he took off from actingand worked for a computer company, and he had a stockpile of that really greatNerf weapon that he just knew that they'd take it off the market because itreally hurt when you nailed someone with it. Which he did at the computercompany and often (he had a little gun arrangement taped under his desk, so hecould be minding his own business and innocently hit a button under his drawerand BAM!). And Nerf took them off the market. Back to work. While sitting around waiting for the lighting guys to get a simple insert shotlighting done, Wil and Melanie sit on the sofa, holding the insert book, andWil begins entertaining us by doing one of his routines. This one is speakingin an automated voice, styled after foreign language tapes, but learning totalk like a production person. "The key grip says, it will take an hour. Itwill take an hour. The 2nd AD says, Where are the actors? Where are theactors?" He goes through an amazing number of positions' jokes, even takingrequests from 2nd AC James without missing a beat. After a while, he says,"Michael Dorn says, Ha. Ha. Ha. I'm on my way to the bank. Ha. Ha. Ha. I'mon my way to the bank." The martini shot (last shot of the movie for this story), Jonas and Melody inthe car talking during their date scene. Mark and Dean are the only ones withheadphones and can hear what Wil and Mel are saying, the rest of the crew outof it. Again, like Day 1 with them filming the scene with Corin and Steve inthe car, Mark gets his tiny crew. On the second take, Melanie mumblessomething to Wil and this time he's the one who loses it and starts laughing,apologizing for wrecking the take, but Melanie made him laugh - payback time. That's a wrap. Julia calls everyone over for announcements, first thanking Melanie and Wil ontheir wrap. We applaud and applaud, Mel and Wil sway in "aw, gosh"embarrassment, bumping into each other's shoulders a little, then moreplayfully bumping into each other's shoulders, hitting a little harder,cutting glances at each other while bumping, starting to glare at each otherwhile bumping shoulders, then they go at it, playfully violently hitting eachother in slap shoulder fashion and Mel calling him a *&#%--yo--^%$&!Everyone laughs. Announcements regarding travel plans to San Francisco for those crew membersworking the second story of the script (alas, not me - I'm heading to a showin Texas). A few more hugs, I sit down and work on my paperwork. Mark tapsmy foot when passing and asks me if I want to watch dailies, last chance? Isay yes. That stupid purse. |
We're finally really called onto the set for the first scene where Melody andJonas are together in his apartment. It's a quiet scene where he's asking herout on a date. At the next stage over, people are building some sets for aLexus ad, so there's sawing and all kinds of noisy equipment running. We trythe scene anyway. The noise gets worse. Wil runs the lines, "You know, getyou out of your house... and me out of my apartment. My neighbors are remodeling and it's really noisy." |